Drapery photo referece book

[minimaker]

Hi,

a while ago I was contacted by Douglas Johnson about a new book they had with pose references for sculpting the human figure (see www.artmodels.biz and www.livemodelbooks.com). He told me they were thinking of doing a similar book with clothed figures as drapery reference. I think that's a great idea suggested I'd ask around to see what artists would like to see in such a book.

So, here I am. What do you think of such a book and what should be in it? My views are based on miniature sculpting so I'm curious to see what you think of this.

Bye, Ming-hua

[JEIK]

man, I Know I would need it!

[fishw]

i can't say i have trouble finding clothed figures for reference. i have a ton of clothing catalogues (ones where they do fun stuff, not just stand there showing you the clothes), fashion mags/books and scraps from magazines and newspapers that give me more reference than i'll ever need.

[minimaker]

I think one difference would be that each pose is photographed from different angles so you can study the same drapery effect from different sides. The other thing is that since the maker of the book is asking for input we may perhaps be able to direct it in a certain direction. For instance fabrics, principles or poses that are not that easily found in books.

[egerie]

One thing that would be paramount is a section that EXPLAINS why the fabric folds in this manner. Hogarth's Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery doesn't show anything from life but is interesting in terms of theory of drapery, movement, etc. A mix of both would be awesome.

[minimaker]

That has also been suggested in another forum (planet figure). I've no idea if there are plans to include theory in it. Possibly not since it's photography that's the series' main focus. There is a pdf preview of another book an his site if you want to see what they do. I'm guessing the drapery book will be very much like that.

Personally I'm not sure if I'd be in favour of having theory added. I don't see these book as theory but more as examples. Like in school when in some courses you get a theory book and a separate work/examples book. There are already several books around that discuss the theory behind drapery so the theory exists. What could be nice though is if the order of emphasis is like in Hogarths book, so you can see examples of each of the chapters.
Still, adding some basic pages like in Jack Hamm's Drawing the head & figure would be nice and make the book more interesting for those who do not yet have a large library.

As to subjects, his first idea was to ask somebody who had done costume history to help getting clothing together. I'm not sure if he means that he wants to go for period clothing but for me I'd be worried patterns and colours will make drapery effects less visible. On the other hand, it could make the book more attractive to painters, drafters and the general public. For me it doesn't matter since I sculpt and have no need for colours.

What do you think?